Izvestiya vuzov. Yadernaya Energetika

The peer-reviewed scientific and technology journal. ISSN: 0204-3327

Diagnostic Information System for Analysis of Data on Fuel Failures Aimed at Enhancing Fuel Reliability

3/18/2024 2024 - #01 Global safety, reliability and diagnostics of nuclear power installations

Evdokimov I.A. Kalinichev P.M. Khromov A.G. Afanasieva E.Yu. Maslova L.A. Sorokin A.A. Goryushin I.O. Burtsev A.Yu. Zolotarev S.P. Babkin S.V.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.26583/npe.2024.1.04

UDC: 621.039.548

Fuel failures lead to significant financial losses during operation of a nuclear power plant (NPP). The most common fuel failures are due to a fuel assembly (FA) containing one or more leaking fuel rods. In order to reduce the concomitant losses, the most countries with advanced nuclear industry launched projects for approaching to «zero failure level». Some countries developed software codes for monitoring and analysis of data related to fuel failures at NPPs.

For assessing the main factors influencing failures of WWER-1000/1200 fuel, the analytical (diagnostic) information system was developed. The system is a web-based interactive software code that provides mathematical processing of accumulated data using, among others, statistical methods.

As a base for assessment of data on fuel failures, the developed system provides a wide range of tools for analysis of fuel reliability indicators. Along with common reliability indicators, additional ones are considered that allow assessing of the predominant failure mechanisms. The analysis of the reliability indicators is aimed at detection of deviations from expected normal fuel behavior. The key component of the system is an interactive toolkit designed for defining causes of the detected deviations. The system provides automatic selection of data related to each group of failures including design documentation, data on FA fabrication, reports on validation of the fuel cycle, reports on detection of leaking fuel, data of post-irradiation examinations and so on. The result is that the user obtains the full set of data for formulation and verification of hypotheses on the main factors that could have led to deviations in the failure rate. Analysis of data on fuel failures supported by the developed system can be used by fuel vendors and nuclear utilities for elaboration of measures aimed at enhancing the fuel reliability.

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NPP WWER nuclear fuel fuel failure leaking fuel fuel reliability failure statistics

Link for citing the article: Evdokimov I.A., Kalinichev P.M., Khromov A.G., Afanasieva E.Yu., Maslova L.A., Sorokin A.A., Goryushin I.O., Burtsev A.Yu., Zolotarev S.P., Babkin S.V. Diagnostic Information System for Analysis of Data on Fuel Failures Aimed at Enhancing Fuel Reliability. Izvestiya vuzov. Yadernaya Energetika. 2024, no. 1, pp. 42-58; DOI: https://doi.org/10.26583/npe.2024.1.04 (in Russian).

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